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61 pages 2 hours read

James Boswell

The Life of Samuel Johnson

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1791

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Ages 68-69Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 882-953 Summary & Analysis

Back home in Edinburgh, Boswell writes to Johnson with the results of Joseph Knight’s case which has been decided in Joseph Knight’s favor. Surprisingly, Boswell now says that he belongs to “those who hold even the mildest and best regulated slavery in abomination” (885), which seems a complete turnaround from his opinion on slavery stated in the previous section. This suggests that Boswell’s view had indeed changed since he wrote the previous section and that he did not care about adjusting each part of the Life for absolute consistency.

On April 15, there is a conversation between Johnson and a company of men and women in which we see the violent contrasts in Johnson’s temperament. The subject turns to women’s rights. Mrs. Knowles, a Quaker woman, argues that “men had much more liberty allowed them than women” (944). Johnson responds that women in fact have “all the advantage” in society; he further argues that of the two sexes, “one or other must have the superiority” (944) and that both men and women achieve happiness in the way appropriate to them. The company goes on to discuss Christian ethics and to contrast friendship with the call to “universal benevolence, to consider all men as our brethren” (946).

Seemingly without transition, Johnson launches into a “violent” tirade against the American revolutionaries, whom he terms “Rascals—Robbers—Pirates” whom he would gladly “burn and destroy” (946). The company feels “uneasy” at Johnson’s rant and Boswell leads the conversation in a different direction.

As reported by Boswell, this conversation shows once again Johnson’s bigoted passion against the Americans and the mixture of benevolence and harshness in his personality. At this moment, the war between Britain and the American colonies is heating up, making the stakes high for the British and raising passions on both sides. Boswell’s actions show that he wants to steer Johnson away from topics that will incite his passions. Boswell is not afraid to highlight the intellectual differences between him and Johnson—an important thing to stress when facing constant accusations of being Johnson’s blinkered fan. 

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